Actually, I think the first time Finn uses the saber (after he gets it from Maz) he presses on the protrusions (fins) above the blade-length adjustor.
– Clockwork-MuseJan 4 '16 at 5:05

The answer to "why the inconsistency" is "because the 'activation matrix' nonsense is very bad design". If it looks like an "on" button and clicks like an "on" button, it better damn well be an "on" button. It's those little things on the side that should do things like adjust the length or brightness.
– MarthaJan 4 '16 at 23:46

1

So probably not a canon answer, but if you had a sword with an on/off switch, wouldn't you want more than one button on there? I mean you might be skilled as hell, but the one time you grab it wrong and have to fiddle for the button - bam, you're dead. I'd want a couple of buttons.
– Misha RJan 25 '16 at 12:28

13 Answers
13

Straightforward answer: Yes, as Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group recently said here and here, it's a mistake and that the lightsaber is still supposed to activate with the plate in the middle.

Q.Why in the Force Awakens does Finn clearly press the blade adjustment button on Luke's lightsaber to turn it on? Is it Snoke?

I know, but USB is the cool new thing....
– DVK-on-Ahch-ToJan 3 '16 at 23:24

2

@Gusdor - it's quite far from the battery, but very close to the Energy Modulation Circuits. Best guess, they serve a dual purpose in ensuring that the energy flow (to the beam) is steady and also that the charger doesn't overload the battery when charging.
– ValorumJan 4 '16 at 12:11

3

@Richard Heh. Yeah basically, except this being Star Wars and not Star Trek, I don't want to have to really think about it. I want that heirloom weapon found locked in a trunk for years to just work.
– mattdmJan 4 '16 at 13:36

Let's say it has both the activation button and the length adjust control as depicted in the dictionaries. Presumably the activation button would cause the blade to quickly jump up to the set blade length. However, if you left it on, but turned the length to 0, maybe holding the length adjust button down would cause it to extend in a slow, cool, way! That way, both the OP images could make sense.

That would be a poor user interface if you could leave it on and turn the blade length down to zero. Imagine you get jumped by somebody, pull out your weapon, activate it, and...nothing happens. That's because you just turned it off! You left it on, remember? You desperately try to activate it again and you still get nothing, because the blade length is zero! Good luck with that.
– MohairJan 4 '16 at 18:43

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@Mohair And then we have the awkward scene where the villain rolls his eyes at you and waits for you to figure it out.
– user11521Jan 4 '16 at 19:00

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@Mohair if you are having trouble with that, you should not be using a weapon that can kill you in one absentminded motion
– AndreyJul 26 '17 at 16:10

In episode 2 of the unfinished episodes of the Clone Wars, which I believe are canon, Anakin turns his lightsaber on by pushing the big red button in the front. This, added to the many ways you cited by which this lightsaber can be turned on, leads me to believe that there is in fact more than one way to turn it on.

I would say it works like a dimmer switch. One switch just controls off and on while the other can control blade length and intensity while also controlling the on off capabilities. Redundancies built into the weapon to make it more useful.
This also explains why Darth Vader comes out at different speeds. Sometimes he uses the blade length adjustment knob sometimes he uses the on off switch

calm down. Lightsabers are actually activated by pressure, not a switch. The people who activated it before could have just pressed it on a different area. Besides this movie is forty years old it would make sense that they could've gotten it mixed up in production.

True; I forgot internal consistency was only invented in 1989.
– jwodderDec 1 '17 at 0:21

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We already have an answer indicating that it was a mistake. It doesn't really seem necessary to back down to saying it might have been mixed up. Also, you provide no citation for the assertion that the other area is a valid location while several well cited answers assert the reverse.
– BrythanDec 1 '17 at 0:21

I think the answer is simple, you can turn the light saber on from two locations, the adjustment button and the activation matrix. You clearly see Fin start the lightsaber from the adjustment button and that movie is canon so that mean it can be started from there. You also see Luke start it from the activation matrix so you can start it from there too. It’s got 2 power buttons, simple.

Jedis tend to make their own light sabers and can fiddle around with button configurations howsoever they wish. Ask anyone who has programmed a macro for playing a MOBA or MMORPG and they'll tell you the power of custom mapping.

Except this question is about why different people turn on the same exact lightsaber using different buttons. We're not talking about all the various lightsabers constructed by various Jedi; we're talking about one particular lightsaber, originally constructed by Anakin Skywalker, tried out by his wife Padmé, inherited and lost by their son Luke, recovered by Maz Kanata, and used by Finn and Rey... and it seems every one of those people use a different button to turn it on.
– MarthaJan 24 '16 at 0:00

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Perhaps I'm being unclear here- my point was that once the light saber ends up in a Jedi's hand, they can reprogram the trigger button howsoever they wish.
– BroklyniteJan 24 '16 at 10:48

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Are you telling me that in the few short seconds after Padmé picked up her husband's lightsaber, she reprogrammed the thing to use a different trigger button? What about Finn? When did he have a chance to fiddle with the saber, and how the heck did he learn how to do so?
– MarthaJan 24 '16 at 18:34

I hadn't realized the timing was that close together- never watched the movies, not my kind of thing.
– BroklyniteJan 24 '16 at 22:17

@Broklynite. Why do I get the feeling that last comment was a joke?
– John BellJan 25 '16 at 11:57

I noticed that right away. The way Rey and Finn turn it on, seemed to me just a stupid mistake. Obviously the young actors grew up with silly cartoon versions and prequel of SW (where is not clear which button they switch, since it changes all the time), they do not know where the actual switch on button was in the original trilogy (where Luke actually turns on the lightsaber always in the same rectangular spot in the middle of the handle, and the replica has the exact same design), and apparently no one, either in pre-production, or on set of Ep.VII TFA, bothered to check for continuity purpose, not even the director! Lame...

Anakin probably wired multiple activation buttons just in case he turns it off mid battle. Then he could use a button in a different location to make sure it stays on. There could be many different buttons on anyone's lightsaber.